Run on down (or zombie stumble!) to the Samurai Comics Superstore on Camelback on Wednesday April 2nd at 4pm for a signing session with Jay Fotos for his new book ‘68: RULE OF WAR #1! This book features three covers, including a blank sketch cover!

Jay will be bringing in some super awesome local talent to do sketches on the blank covers, so make sure you stop on by and see some of the freshest and coolest takes on Zombies from some of the very best talent that Arizona has to offer!

In addition to Jay signing, anyone that purchases a copy of ’68: Rule of War #1 during the signing (so from 4pm to 9pm) will be able to get 10% off any one item of Zombie related awesomeness!

Not enough for you? Well how about Samurai Comics having a Zombie Make-Up Artist #LinzyPoo offering zombie makeup ($10 a head) come in and making you all crazy and creepy zombies?! Well that is happening too!

In a doom-shadowed Cambodia infested with the living dead, CIA Special Agent Declan Rule and his canine companion Nero stalk a human monster, a neurosurgeon bent on carrying out grisly experiments that turn P.O.W.s into vicious instruments of war. In Vietnam, Private Kuen Yam and his ragtag band of survivors battle their way across a murderous no-man’s-land in a desperate search for a ticket to the skies. The war is over, but the battle for humanity’s survival has just begun. Courage will be tested, sanity will be pushed to the breaking point and the rules of war… will be broken.

Artist/writer Stuart Immonen (New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man) will raffle off four sketches each day of the Phoenix Comicon (Phoenix AZ, May 24 – 27, 2012) to benefit the Hero Initiative. This is a rare opportunity to commission a sketch as Immonen famously declines requests as outlined in his book 50 Reasons to Stop Sketching at Conventions.

Artist Stuart Immonen will be helping Hero out at the con! The artist of Marvel Comics’ X-Men and Fear Itself will be at his own artist alley table, but sketching ONLY for Hero! Stuart will do four full-size 11-by-17-commission sketches per day. To get in in, you MUST purchase raffle tickets at $1 each. Four tickets per day will be drawn, and winners will pay $200 for a single-character, full-figure grey marker wash drawing. Drawings take place Friday, Saturday and Sunday at noon!

In addition, you MUST buy the Spawn/Lady Death Phoenix Con print with art by Andy Arias and inked by Todd McFarlane! Both McFarlane and Lady Death creator Brian Pulido will sign each print, limited to 250 serial-numbered pieces. All proceeds benefit Hero Initiative.

And go see John Layman! Layman, writer of the Image Comics hit Chew, has sat on both sides of the pitching process as an editor and as a creator. He’ll be putting on a special panel Sunday, May 27 at 130 p.m. to tell you what it takes to develop a winning pitch for your comics and graphic novels! Tickets to this in-depth workshop and Q&A are available ONLY with a $25 donation to Hero Initiative. Seating is limited!

Phoenix, AZ April 28th 2010: The creators of Vietnam- zombie war ridden comic ’68 recently announced its relaunch and will be promoting it with a limited edition print at Phoenix Comicon. ’68 is published by Image Comics with Mark Kidwell ( Bump, Frazetta’s Dark Kingdom), Nat Jones (Frazetta’s Death Dealer, Rob Zombie’s The Nail) and Jay Fotos (Frazetta’s Death Dealer, Locke & Key).

“I’m so excited!” said Andrea Beasely-Brown, Horror Programming Manager for the Phoenix Comicon, “Zombies just make everything better.”

The ’68 miniseries picks up right where the original tale left off and broadens its scope, encompassing not only the gore-soaked horrors of the war in Vietnam, but fixing a bloodshot eye on the politically torn USA as the dead rise, heralding the apocalypse and devouring anything with a pulse.

To celebrate the continuation of ’68, Kidwell, Jones and Fotos will be attending the 2010 Phoenix Comicon, May 27-30, 2010. The creators are proud to present an exclusive, limited edition print — a gruesome, full-color 11″ x 17″ depiction of Napalm Charlie — signed by Kidwell, Jones and Fotos.

“The Phoenix Comicon is hot!” said local creator Jay Fotos, “I’m so happy that Mark, Nat and I will be here to unleash the plague of the ’68 re-launch, the fans have been dying for it and so have we!”

“The zombies will be moaning for more than just brains this year,” says Matt Solberg, Phoenix Comicon Convention Director, “They’ll be wanting these limited edition prints!”

Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of four major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com .

Phoenix Comicon is the signature pop culture event of the southwest, presenting guests and programming for hobbyists and fans by attracting the top segments of the comics, anime, sci-fi, film, TV, and gaming industries. Entering its ninth year, Phoenix Comicon is expected to draw over 10,000+ attendees to its May 27-30, 2010 convention held at the Phoenix Convention Center and Hyatt Regency located in downtown Phoenix.

Every year comic book fans have the holiday blues. Due to the UPS holiday shipping schedule, comics get delayed. For the first time in recent history, new comic books won’t ship on the last week of the year. While some comic book shops threw their hands up in outrage, local comic book shop, SpazDog Comics, saw it as an opportunity to spotlight all of the local comic book creators who get lost in the shuffle the other 51 weeks of the year.

On December 30th from 11am to 5pm, they will be hosting an Indy Comic Book Week signing (www.indycomicbookweek.com). 27 comic book creators from all over Arizona will be signing and selling their latest comic book creations.

For Eric Esquivel and Dave Baker, it’s the first signing that they are doing for their new graphic novel, Horrible Little People outside their homebase of Tucson. They aren’t the only Tucson residents who are making the trip to participate in our Indy Comic Book Week Signing. Jonnie Allen, Ken Wright, Maggie Wright, Eric Schock and Taylor Garrity are all making the trip. Other Arizona out of town guests includes DC freelance artist Dave Beaty and Micah Stewart from Prescott. They are joined by 20 other Phoenix area comic book creators who want readers to set down Superman and Spider-man for a day and read one of their comics.

SpazDog Comics owner, Shawn Demumbrum, even got into the spirit of Indy Comic Book Week. One of my customer’s who is an artist asked me to take his idea and write a story said Shawn. The 8 page mini comic that he and artists, Ernie Najera and Derrick West, created will be available on December 30th. In addition to the local artist’s comic books, SpazDog Comics will have a huge assortment of independent comic books for sale from across the country and Canada created by participants in Indy Comic Book Week.

SpazDog Comics located at 21610 N. 35th Avenue on the southwest corner of 35th Avenue and Deer Valley Road near the junction of I-17 and Loop 101. SpazDog Comics will be open from 11am until 8pm! With creators appearing until 5pm.